CKCyberPack Community Robotics Team

$585
of $10,000 goal

The C.K. Cyber Pack is a FIRST Robotics Competition team consisting of 40 high school students and 15 adult mentors from around Chatham-Kent. We are also one of the only Canadian community team. We are a part of a worldwide, non-profit organization called F.I.R.S.T. (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). FIRST hosts four annual robotics programs; the Junior FIRST Lego League, for ages 6-9, FIRST Lego League, for ages 9-16, FIRST Tech Challenge, for ages 12-18, and the FIRST Robotics Competition, for ages 14-18. These programs are educational and career-molding experiences for as many as 400,000 students from over all over the world. FIRST is projected to host over 2,250 robotics events this year, and fill over 200,000 volunteer positions.

The 2016/2017 season will mark our third year as a FIRST Robotics team. In our first year, we exceeded expectations by winning the Rookie All-Star Award while participating in the Windsor-Essex Great Lakes Regional Competition, where we competed against 58 other teams. Earning this award gained our team an invitation to participate in the 2015 FIRST World Championships in St. Louis, Missouri. After an exciting first and second year, our team has welcomed over 30 new student team members from high schools all over Chatham-Kent.

Just like any successful person or business, our team has a wide range of goals for this year. Our main goal as a community is to arm our youth with the tools needed to be successful and improve the lives of people around them on a local level, as well as an international level. No better tool has been provided than FIRST. A study from Brandeis University discovered that FIRST participants have improved problem solving skills by 98%, increased time management skills by 95%, increased conflict resolution skills by 93%, and strengthened communication skills by over 76%.

The C.K. Cyber Pack Robotics Team is reaching out to the community for financial support. The running of a FIRST Robotics Team is very expensive, the robot can have a value up to $4,000 USD, and registration for competitions can be up to being $7,500. We plan to again compete in the Windsor-Essex Great Lakes Event Competition, the Waterloo District Event and the World Championships, if we earn our way there.